From biotech to best-sellers

You couldn’t blame Douglas Richards if he has whiplash. He quit his job as a biotech executive in San Diego to pursue his dream of writing, went back to biotech when it seemed his dream had died, and then watched his self-published book “Wired” become a New York Times best-seller.

His new techno-thriller, “The Cure,” is about a woman who witnesses a horrible crime as a child and grows up to study the brains of psychopaths, looking for a way to reverse their condition. She gets mixed up with people who aren’t what they seem.

The book comes out Sept. 17. Richards, 51, who lives in Carmel Valley, will be at the Barnes & Noble there on Sept. 29 at noon.

Q: You have an extensive background in science. What drew you to that initially?

A: Really, science fiction. To be honest, the stuff I was learning in grade school, the minerals and the water cycle, kind of bored me a little bit. But the stuff I was reading in science fiction novels was really awesome and that inspired me.

Q: What were some of your favorites?

A: Boy, I read nothing but science fiction as a kid. I was a big fan of Isaac Asimov. He was kind of like the Michael Crichton of his day in the sense that he was a scientist who used accurate science in all of his books.

Q: Is it true you have a couple of mutant viruses named after you?

A: Yeah. They’re named after my initials, but close enough. I did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was in molecular biology, genetic engineering, and I had a project where I was making mutations in viruses. The work was published in the Journal of Virology before I moved on and got into the biotechnology industry.

Q: How did you make the leap from working in biotech to writing science fiction?

A: It started out with kids’ books. I had kids of my own, and like I told you, my whole career trajectory was due to the great science fiction I had read. So I thought, I want to find books my kids can read that would do the same. There was a lot of great fantasy, Harry Potter and others, but I didn’t find as many science fiction offerings for that middle-grade age range so I decided to try writing one. I wound up doing several.

Q: Then you made the leap to books for grown-ups and self-published “Wired.” Tell me about that.

A: I had left biotech and the funds were starting to dwindle. I wrote the book, and editors at a couple of publishing houses were very interested, but I just missed with them. I shoved the book in a drawer and said, “It’s not going to happen. Even though people seem to really like my work, I’m just not getting to where I need to go.” In early 2011, I returned to biotech.

Three or four months in, I noticed e-books. I was late to that party. They were becoming big. I thought, the book is just gathering dust in my desk, I’ll throw it online. It went viral. Four months later, it spent five weeks on The New York Times and USA Today best-seller lists.